‪#‎100sareepact‬
30/100
Day 4 of the Leadership workshop. It left me exhausted 😳 and elated on a job well executed 😛
Wearing a silk cotton from Pothys, Chennai. Got it during one of my various visits to Chennai, in my previous company. I miss my Chennai visits – Grand sweets, Pothys or Sundari or Nalli, Ambika Appalam, one temple, Sukras, Mylapore Woodlands were must on the list.
I vividly remember this saree. It was the month of Aadi and every damn store in Chennai, T Nagar was packed. I didn’t realize the enormity of the rush till I reached the store. Reached Pothys straight from office in a saree. The driver dropped me at the steps and scooted. RASCAL!
I went in and immediately regretted my decision to shop. The ground floor was packed like I have seen anywhere! There were people everywhere, more people than sarees and I was wondering where they were crawling out from. Suddenly I felt a sharp tug on my saree Pallu. I turned to see a lady pulling it to try it on her thinking its part of the saree collection. I yank the saree right back and I say in Tamizh, Hello. oru nimisham. Idhu enoda sellai. Yen izhutheenga. (Hey. My saree. Why you pulling).
Oh ho, she replies,and then she and her friend starts tittering, saying she didn’t know and then she was asking me how come I know Tamizh. I say, why I shouldn’t know or what and she says oh you don’t look like you know Tamizh. Huh? So how should one look if one knows Tamizh….. 😈
By now I was livid , angry, sweating and the crowd with all the various smells was getting to me. And the lady adding insult to injury about me not looking like I know Tamizh, really gets me hopping mad.
I was debating if I should leave or stay when a sales guy noticed me and came to my rescue. He said Madam, mele vaanga. Ange ongallukku nalla sele kamikkaren. (come up and I will show you good sarees in that section). What a relief!! Of course I get some great customer service, Kaapi and kesari too and this was one of the “decent” sarees I picked up. Now that’s another typical Chennai lingo. If you don’t like jazzy stuff, then Ma’am kku decent sarees eduthu podunga the supervisor will announce and then miraculously all awesome stuff will surface. Thus making your job tougher as each one will be more beautiful than the other….. Sigh!!!
I reach the hotel later in the evening with 2 huge bags and the lady in the reception looks at me with respect and says you shopped in the Aadi rush?? Wow!! And I felt like I scaled mount Everest!! Ha!!